Pages

Labels

Who is this guy?

Jason Freyer is a youth pastor at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh, PA. He enjoys his job so much that he has decided to spend countless hours of his free time writing about it in the new modern medium of weblog, or blog. That brings us here. Welcome to the blog of J, or in its condensed version, J-Blog. Jason writes this blog to be by youth pastors, for youth pastors, but watch with amazement as he dives into other topics as worship leading, preaching, politics, the Pittsburgh sports scene, or whatever else happens to be on his mind. Jason lives with his wife Sarah and their two dogs Marley and Melvin. This is some of the finest third person writing he's done in a while.

Ever have a word get stuck in your head? Like a fire ant that has climbed into your cerebellum and decided to make it's nest in your consciousness, this word has grabbed your attention and will not let go? Well, even if you haven't, play along with me.

I've been working through a few books and scripture studies lately in an attempt to get myself prepared for the upcoming season of Veritas, and I'm stumbling over these words that used to have my attention, but no longer seem to have the grip they used to. And the more I'm reading, the more I'm discovering, these words are essential to a Christ-Centered Life, and they need to be picked up and reclaimed. Today's word is rescue.

The truth of the matter is that all of humanity finds itself in a dangerous or harmful situation on a daily basis. We harm each other with alarming regularity. The things that we do to each other on the internet alone should probably qualify as war crimes for the soul. Our words rip and tear at each other so that we have the perceived feeling of being raised up when really all we've done is torn another person down. And all of that is before we even get to the unimaginable harm we do to each other physically, both intentional (wars, stealing lunch money, rape) and unintentional (ignoring the poor, ignorant of suffering, holding on to all the food ourselves while someone else goes to bed hungry). We are horrible to each other.

But then I think about some of what's going on in my world, and without turning the faithful J-Blog into my person therapy session, I've realized in recent weeks that I am capable of doing all that harm to myself with very little help from the outside world. I talk myself down. I beat myself up. I say things to myself that I would never say to any other human being. While it's not always this way, I'm realizing that I can be a total wreck.

Of course, in the Christian faith we have a language for this too. We call it Sin, and it is the engine driving the injury we inflict on ourselves and others. When we aren't busy using it as a weapon against each other (see paragraph above), we start to realize that everyone is a sinner. We realize that it's inescapable. We find ourselves in a situation not unlike Indiana Jones being stuck in quicksand. There's no way out, and thrashing against ourselves or other people only makes us sink faster.

And hence, the importance of the word rescue. We believe firmly that Jesus rescues us from the dangerous or harmful situations others have brought upon us, as well as those we place ourselves in. Like a coast guard diver who leaps from the helicopter into the choppy water, Jesus leapt from the right hand of God and came into our world and experienced our hurts, our desires, our temptations, and even our death, purely and simply so that he could provide us with rescue. His blood shed on the cross was a promise that we would never have to deal with sin again.

Of course, the struggle is that we are in the already/but not yet. For as much as we look forward to the life to come in the Kingdom of God, we still live in the world that everyone has universally agreed is falling apart at the seems. But rescue is here, and rescue is coming. Christ frees us from the harmful situations we place ourselves in, and offers us the ability to forgive those who place us in harmful situations. And in the end, the ultimate rescue of the Kingdom founded on earth as it is in heaven will be ours to enjoy forever.